Firefighters continue to battle forest fire outside Athens

Athens, Aug 18 (EFE).- Firefighters continued to battle a large forest fire raging outside Athens for the third consecutive day Wednesday.

Some 8,000 hectares of land have been already destroyed in the blazes that are burning through a mountainous area to the northeast of the Greek capital.

Sources from the country’s fire department told local media that the situation was starting to improve on Wednesday amid ongoing efforts to bring the fire under control.

Five villages were evacuated on Tuesday and seven others the previous day. The fires are not currently threatening homes.

For the past two weeks, Greece has been battling massive fires that have seriously impacted areas in the north of Athens, the island of Euboea and the peninsula of Peloponnese.

The wildfires have burned 100,000 hectares of forest, destroyed hundreds of houses. So far, two fatalities have been reported. EFE

ih/smq/ks